1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus for and a method of separating elongated articles of random length, into articles of at least minimum length and articles of less than minimum length. More specifically, this invention concerns separating broken ears of corn less than four inches in length, known as nubbins, from whole ears of corn, on a high-speed conveyor line at a food processing plant.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Known separators have conveying surfaces with grading openings therein, which allow whole ears of corn to pass over the openings, while nubbins fall by gravity through the openings. Such graders limit the capacity for processing corn on a conveyor line because at high speed, nubbins tend to jump the grading opening instead of falling by gravity through the opening. When the conveying surface is that of a vibratory feeder, the location of the grading opening varies with the vibratory stroke. Such movement of the grading opening can result in inaccurate grading and inefficient separation.